James Rosen disclosed Duane “Dewey” Clarridge and the Eclipse Group kept tabs on Bergdahl -- first “under sub-contract” to the DOD -- and later as a free-lancer
According to James Rosen of Fox News, “U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl at one point during his captivity converted to Islam, fraternized openly with his captors and declared himself a ‘mujahid,’ or warrior for Islam, according to secret documents prepared on the basis of a purported eyewitness account and obtained by Fox News. *** The reports indicate that Bergdahl's relations with his Haqqani captors morphed over time, from periods of hostility, where he was treated very much like a hostage, to periods where, as one source told Fox News, ‘he became much more of an accepted fellow’ than is popularly understood. He even reportedly was allowed to carry a gun at times.” ( See “EXCLUSIVE: Bergdahl declared jihad in captivity, secret documents show” by James Rosen, 6/5/14, Fox News [http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/06/05/exclusive-bergdahl-declared-jihad-secret-documents-show/]).
As part of Rosen’s lengthy report about Bergdahl’s conversion, Rosen goes into an interesting side discussion about his main source of information for the report on Bergdahl — Duane R. ("Dewey") Clarridge and “secret documents” called SITREPs. According to Rosen, the SITREPs are rich in on-the-ground detail – including the names and locations of the Haqqani commanders who ran the 200-man rotation used to guard Bergdahl – and present the most detailed view yet of what Bergdahl's life during the past five years had been like. Mr. Clarridge made the more than one dozen SITREPs prepared on the Bergdahl case -- all previously unpublished -- available to Fox News because he wanted to demonstrate, as he put it: "We know what we're talking about."
Rosen then said, “These real-time dispatches were generated by the Eclipse Group, a shadowy private firm of former intelligence officers and operatives that has subcontracted with the Defense Department and prominent corporations to deliver granular intelligence on terrorist activities and other security-related topics, often from challenging environments in far-flung corners of the globe.”
Clarridge reportedly told Fox News that his group had been on a subcontract through the assistant Secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict from November 2009 through May 31, 2010; and that after that contract had been terminated, Clarridge invested some $50,000 of his own money to maintain the elaborate network of informants and handlers that had yielded such detailed accounts of Bergdahl's status.
The Eclipse Group is run by Clarridge, who is a former senior operations officer for the Central Intelligence Agency in the 1980s, and who is known to have been indicted for lying to Congress about his role in the tangled set of events that became known as the Iran-Contra scandal. While on trial for those charges in December 1992, he was pardoned by the outgoing President, George H.W. Bush.
Clarridge counts a number of positive achievements in his spy career, including a prominent role in the establishment of a national counterrorism center at CIA, a move widely copied around the world by foreign intelligence agencies. A New York Times profile of Clarridge published in January 2011 included a description of the contractual relationship that Eclipse had with the Pentagon, through subcontractors; and the Times specifically reported that Clarridge's activities had included efforts to help find Bergdahl. In that profile, the New York Times described Clarridge’s agents' dispatches as “an amalgam of fact, rumor, analysis and uncorroborated reports.”
Rosen’s report is rich on names and dates as to the who, what and where Clarridge was sending his Eclipse Group's SITREPs. Anybody wanting to look at one “man behind the curtain” in a significant part of the growing Bergdahl-Taliban swap scandal should look at Rosen’s article for that insight alone.
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UPDATE: “THE SOUND AND THE FURY” EDITION
LA TIMES REPORTS: BI-PARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL CRITICISM OF ADMINISTRATION OVER BERGDAHL DEAL
DEFENSE SECRETARY HAGEL TO TESTIFY TO HOUSE COMMITTEE NEXT WEEK — WITH MORE HEARINGS TO FOLLOW
An LA Times feature by reporters by Michael A Memoli and Lisa Mascaro indicates that the White House is still facing an increasing storm of congressional criticism over the deal to exchange Army Sergeant Bergdahl for five top Taliban officials, who had been held in Guantanamo Bay ( See “White House faces growing fury in Congress over Bowe Bergdahl deal, by Michael A Memoli & Lisa Mascaro, 5/6/14, LA Times [http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-bergdahl-storm-20140605-story.html]). According to that report, “ ‘I think that they expected everybody just to fall in line,’ said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and one of those who received a personal apology from a senior White House aide. *** Feinstein said the White House failed to anticipate that bypassing Congress would provoke anger on both sides of the aisle. The discovery that the five Afghans were top-ranking Taliban commanders has fueled concerns that the trade may endanger U.S. security. *** ‘This is an issue that certainly those of us on the Intelligence Committee care a great deal about,’ Feinstein said. ‘Because we believe that there is potential danger from certain of these five people.’ ”
The same report also noted that: “Stung by mounting criticism that they had failed to notify Congress before moving the five Afghan prisoners from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, administration and military officials provided a classified briefing to the full Senate, a rare occurrence....” And “Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel agreed to testify in the House next week, with more hearings to follow.”
UPDATE: “THE LEFTISH MEDIA DON’T KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH THE FOX NEWS COVERAGE OF BERGDAHL” EDITION
ARTICLE IN SALON FORCED TO DO VERBAL GYMNASTICS IN CRITIQUE OF FOX NEWS’ JAMES ROSEN’S REVELATIONS ABOUT BERGDAHL’S CONVERSION TO ISLAM AND JIHAD
The left-wing and much of the mainstream media is completely at a loss to stem the momentum of Fox News in delivering details as to Bowe Bergdahl’s probable desertion from the U.S. Army, defection to the Taliban, and even his possible conversion to Islam and self-characterization as a “mujahid.” Most of the MSM have relied on the tried and true methods of blackout or boycott of Fox News breaks following a routine adage that goes something like this: “If it comes from Fox News it isn’t news.” Others with a more leftist and/or activist bent have tried to blunt the effect of the Fox News exclusives or breaking news with some sort of direct attack.
The Simon Maloy piece in Salon is an example of an attempt to make such a direct attack on James Rosen’s exclusive on Fox News about the secret SITREPs from The Eclipse Group that indicated Bowe Bergdahl had become a convert to Islam and an active Jihadist ( See “Fox News’ new transformation: How Bowe Bergdahl went from POW to terrorist” by Simon Maloy, 6/614, Salon [http://www.salon.com/2014/06/06/fox_news_new_transformation_how_bowe_bergdahl_went_from_pow_to_terrorist/]). The Salon article criticized the Fox-Rosen report like this: “Venerable network reports Bergdahl converted to Islam and became a terrorist, based on comically thin sourcing....” The article proceeds to use some tortured logic to demonstrate that Rosen’s piece had no value because it essentially came from a single source — Duane “Dewey” Clarridge, an operative that allegedly had been indicted resulting from his involvement in the long-ago Iran-Contra scandal. What Simon Maloy seems to miss is that James Rosen repeatedly cautioned those watching, listening-to and/or reading his report that it was thinly sourced and what that sourcing was.
Furthermore, Maloy ignored other Fox reports about the substance of James Rosen’s report, which did go to collateral sources on many aspects or details of what Rosen had reported; and established the likelihood that Clarridge’s SITREPs were turned over to the Department of Defense officers and would likely have been reviewed or been available to review at the highest levels.
BACKFILL: “THE MORE OF THE SAME” EDITION
MORE LOGICALLY TORTURED, MORE INTELLECTUALLY DISHONEST, AND MORE STRIDENT VERSION OF THE SALON ANTI-FOX ARTICLE BASICALLY SAYS THE SAME THING, ON STEROIDS
Blogger Julie Driscoll starts out like this: “Ah Fox, it’s good to know we can count on something. For instance, Fox will always be on the naysayer side of the happy stories, and the happy side of the grotesque stories — which is why, when a Fox News headline screamed that “Bergdahl declared jihad in captivity, secret documents show,” it was hard to stifle a yawn....”; and it goes down hill from that (See “Fox Mindlessly Says Bergdahl May Be Jihadist” by Julie Driscoll, 6/6/14, Addicting Info [http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/06/06/fox-mindlessly-says-bergdahl-may-be-jihadist/]).
UPDATE: THE “MUCH ADO ABOUT MUCH ADO” EDITION
THE LEFTISH LEANING ECHO CHAMBER TELLS OF ONE MAINSTREAM MEDIA “PANEL”FIRING BLANKS AT FOX NEWS FOR REPORT ABOUT BERGDAHL’S ANNOUNCED JIHAD AND ISLAMIC CONVERSION
The left-leaning Huffington Post media mavens could not wait to report the following as if it were “news” [PLEASE NOTE: It really isn’t]: “The panel on CNN's "Reliable Sources" on Sunday criticized Fox News' recent report claiming that Bowe Bergdahl had converted to Islam while in captivity. *** Bergdahl and his family have come under intense scrutiny since his return to the United States after being held in Afghanistan for five years. On Sunday, CNN host Brian Stelter examined the Obama administration's "missteps" and the media's fiery coverage of Bergdahl with the Daily Caller's Matt Lewis, the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza and CNN's Gloria Borger. ***
The host turned to the Friday Fox News report that said Bergdahl had converted to Islam while in captivity. Stelter said that the report -- based on what Fox News described as "secret documents" from a private intelligence company -- was not backed up by other sources.... ( See “CNN Panel Criticizes Fox News' Bergdahl Report” Katherin Fung, 6/8/14 [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/08/fox-news-bergdahl_n_5469308.html]).
Without a single fact to counter the validity of the James Rosen report about the secret SITREPs prepared by The Eclipse Group for the DOD, the left wing supporters of the Obama Administration are trying to “spike” reports like Rosen’s that add fuel to the fire to the part of the growing scandal about the deal to get Bergdahl gack in U.S. hands by letting five captured Taliban leaders free. This is an old leftish media trick – if a story is bad for the administration, make the push back about who wrote the story and what went into getting the story – never address the “facts” that are in the story.
Note: Fox News has determined by various collateral sources outside of Duane “Dewey Clarridge and The Eclipse Group ( mentioned in the Comments and main blog above) that the several SITREPs dealing with various aspects of Bowe Bergdahl’s captivity that served as the basis of Rosen’s report were likely genuine work product of the DOD subcontractor and likely turned over to the DOD in due course. As such, they would have been part of the intelligence file on Bowe Bergdahl and available for senior DOD and other administration officials prior to the making of any of the earlier PR claims about Bergdahl’s service being “honorable” - “competent” and “with distinction” by the likes of Obama’s National Security Adviser Susan Rice.
UPDATE: THE “BERGDAHL REPATRIATION” ISSUE
The 28-year-old Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the American soldier longest "held-in-captivity" since the Vietnam War, has been taken to the San Antonio Military Medical Center. Bergdahl returned home early Friday morning to anything but a hero's welcome due to his reputation having been tarnished by accusations that he was a deserter and a very controversial prisoner swap to secure his release – that required the exchange of five senior Taliban figures held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Bergdahl arrived in San Antonio from a military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, to which he had been evacuated after his release on May 31st and where he was “recuperating” since his release (See “Bowe Bergdahl returns home -- to a long road ahead” by Saeed Ahmed and Greg Botelho, 6/13/14, CNN. [http://www.cnn.com/2014/06/13/politics/bowe-bergdahl-return/]).
UPDATE: THE “U.S. ARMY’S CHIEF INSPECTOR JACQUES CLOUSEAU” EDITION
U.S. ARMY APPOINTS GENERAL TO INVESTIGATE BERGDAHL — OR — INVESTIGATION NATION ADDS ANOTHER ONE TO THE ALREADY TOO LONG LIST
COVERUP STRONGLY SUGGESTED BY FOX NEWS
Several news outlets have spread the word that the Army is going to do another one of those endless Obama-Administration investigations where everybody says we can’t talk about that because it’s under investigation. The investigating general's name is being withheld pending a formal announcement. It is not clear when Bergdahl will undergo questioning as part of the investigation. What is pretty clear is that even if Bergdahl is actually a treacherous U.S. Army deserter who cost several American lives and greatly hindered the effectiveness of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, the whol thing is going to be covered up (See “Bergdahl's future uncertain; legal resolution could take years, say experts” by Kristina Shevory, 6/15/14, Fox News [http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/06/15/bergdahl-future-uncertain-legal-resolution-could-take-years-say-experts/]).
Btw, if you want to see a pure piece of crap that shows a lot of what is wrong with this country, take a look at a Boston Globe opinion piece by a Boston College professor that advocates a lot of kisses and hugs for Bergdahl and other unnamed things that form the “...fragile bonds of trust that are his birthright as an American” (See “Bowe Bergdahl, ‘Homeland,’ and the kindness of strangers” by Martha Bayles, 6/14-6/15/14, The Boston Globe [http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2014/06/14/bowe-bergdahl-homeland-and-kindness-strangers/o0Kch1IZ1avYioraPi8OaJ/story.html]). I especially love what this author thinks are the “good” attributes of young Americans.
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